Italian News

Catania Outdoor Markets Reopen

By Dr. Alberto Lunetta, NAS Sigonella Public Affairs

After two months of closure due to COVID-19, the popular Catania outdoor markets reopened their stands and doors for business, marking Catania as the first city in Sicily to reopen.

On May 8th, the Catania Fish Market (Pescheria) and local city markets opened back up.

Vendors must abide by a series of strict social distancing rules. Customers are required to wear face masks and gloves as well as undergo temperature scans upon entry. Local police have been tasked to enforce these safety rules and there is only one entry and one exit.

Catania’s big outdoor market, called “La Fiera” or “’A Fera ‘o Luni” is located on the piazza Carlo Alberto square, opened on May 13, with 132 food vendors. Access to this market requires everyone to follow the same safety rules as the fish market. Currently, the market offers all kinds of clothes at a very convenient price and even food (fish, meat and vegetables), with the other vendors expected to open next week.

The local police have been using an occupancy control app to count how many customers would be going in and out of all these markets to prevent them from becoming too crowded.

Catania’s Metro stations also reopened with special precautions put in place to protect passengers.

Public Masses to Resume in Italy May 18

Story by the Catholic News Agency

Dioceses in Italy will resume public Masses beginning Monday, May 18, under conditions issued Thursday by the head of Italy’s bishops and by government officials.

The protocol for Mass and other liturgical celebrations states that churches must limit the number of people present – ensuring a one meter (three feet) distance – and congregants must wear face masks. The church must also be cleaned and disinfected between celebrations.

For the distribution of the Eucharist, priests and other ministers of Holy Communion are asked to wear gloves and masks covering both the nose and mouth and to avoid contact with communicants’ hands.

The Diocese of Rome suspended public Masses March 8 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Several dioceses in hard-hit northern Italy, including Milan and Venice, had suspended public liturgies as early as the last week of February.

All public religious celebrations, including baptisms, funerals, and weddings, were prohibited during the Italian government’s lockdown, which went into effect March 9.

Beginning May 4, funerals were allowed again. Public baptisms and weddings may resume in Italy starting May 18.

The protocol issued May 7 lays out the general directions for complying with health measures, such as the indication of a maximum capacity in a church based on maintaining at least one-meter distance between people.

Access to the church must be regulated to control the number present, it says, and the number of Masses can be increased to ensure social distancing.

The church should be cleaned and disinfected after every celebration and the use of worship aids such as hymnals is discouraged.

Church doors should be propped open before and after Mass to aid traffic flow and hand sanitizer must be available at entrances.

Among other suggestions, the Sign of Peace should be omitted, and holy water fonts kept empty, the protocol states.

The protocol was signed by Italian bishops’ conference president Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, Prime Minister and President of the Council Giuseppe Conte, and the Minister of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese.

A note says the protocol was prepared by the Italian bishops’ conference and examined and approved by the government’s Technical-Scientific Committee for COVID-19.

April 26 Italy’s bishops had criticized Conte for failing to lift the ban on public Masses.

In a statement, the bishops’ conference denounced Conte’s decree on “phase 2” of Italy’s coronavirus restrictions, which it said, “arbitrarily excludes the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people.”

The prime minister’s office responded later the same night indicating that a protocol would be studied to allow “the faithful to participate in liturgical celebrations as soon as possible in conditions of maximum security.”

The Italian bishops issued a statement May 7 stating that the protocol for restarting public Masses “concludes a path that has seen collaboration between the Italian Episcopal Conference, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior.”

The Regional government of Sicily plans to recover from the economic fallout of the coronavirus lockdown by offering to partially pay accommodation for potential summer visitors. Sicilian authorities allocated €75million of regional government money to restart the island’s tourism industry.

Photo by Globalpsa.com

Sicily to subsidize post-Covid holidays as Italy considers reopening to tourists

Story from TP24.it

Sicily’s regional government is offering to subsidize holidays on the island for both domestic and international visitors in an effort to kickstart tourism after the coronavirus pandemic. News of the scheme came days before a statement from the Italian government that it expects borders to be open to tourists this summer.

A financial pot of €75m of regional government money has been set aside to boost tourism following huge financial losses after the lockdown came into effect across Italy on 10 March. Current plans include subsidizing visitors’ accommodation costs, offering one night of a three-night trip for free, or two nights of a sixday trip, as well as vouchers for cultural and heritage activities. The plans were detailed in an interview with Sicily’s tourism director, Manlio Messina, on Italian news show Mattino Cinque. There have been reports that the funding may also be used towards paying for up to half of the cost of flights, but this has not yet been confirmed.

Once the lockdown restrictions have been successfully eased further (without a rise in coronavirus cases), more information on how to take advantage of the offers will be posted on the Sicilian tourist board website.

Meanwhile, quashing what he called “fake news” reports that Italy may be closed to holidaymakers for the rest of 2020, Dario Franceschini, Italy’s culture and tourism minister, told newspaper Il Messaggero: “I have never talked or ever thought of closing Italian borders to tourists for 2020. I am working towards the complete opposite, and proposed yesterday at a meeting of EU tourism minsters as uniform approach to managing infection risks. We are also starting bilateral talks with other countries that send a lot of tourists to Italy.”

Tourism revenue fell by 95% in Italy in March, according to banking group UBS, and the national tourism agency is forecasting a €20bn drop in tourist spending for this year compared with last.

This week Italy entered phase two of its lockdown, including the reopening of parks, and restaurants for takeaway meals. Some shops, museums and cultural venues are due to reopen on 18 May, and there is much discussion about managing social distancing on beaches and creating space for more outdoor tables at restaurants.

Although he ruled out closing the border, Franceschini added a note of realism: “I imagine, unfortunately, that international tourism will drop sharply this summer – both incoming and outgoing. So we are making a strong investment in domestic tourism, because this will be a summer of holidays in Italy … You have to adopt the right balance between safeguarding health and restarting economic and social life. It must be done with the utmost care. We’re moving one step at a time.”